Thankful

Not sure if anyone reads this anymore but I feel it is a good little way to remember things.

We had a really good Thanksgiving it was relaxing. My grandma came from Houston and Brandon and my dad were home from Dallas and Wichita Falls. We ate good food and chilled. I work retail so I worked 8 hours on Black Friday (form 7am-2pm) It was actually pretty good and fun I like having a busy work place.

We skyped with Jared and Kashari in Idaho it is nice to have such great friends and Skype helps me feel closer to them. Facebook can only go so far being able to see them cook and interacting with them is great! Now Skype just needs to figure out how we can hug and share food!!! : ) We also Skyped with Brandon's siblings and parents in Denver--I am so grateful for Skype!!! It is SOOOO much better than a phone conversation and it is FREE!!! Anyway now that I just did a free add for Skype (lol) !!

This is when I skyped with Jared and Kashari and we went to www.makemebabies.com and were playing around with making babies. My screen froze at a great moment and I did a screen shot. They were laughing at their baby boy.....but they did get a few really cute babies from this!

Brandon talking to Tenille on Skype the other night. : )

We had our family pictures taken about a week ago, family meaning just me and Brandon. My friend Melissa Brewer took our pictures. Below are some of our pictures. I am saving our favorite for Christmas cards/e-cards. After Christmas I will add a link to her photo blog--you can get to our favorite one on her blog and we want it to be the first time you see it when you get it as a Christmas card or e-card. Brandon did about 900 miles of driving this week and he leaves again for Dallas on Monday. He has been working really hard and getting very connected in Dallas....we are hoping to be there and employed the beginning of 2010....WOW that is weird to say!! 2010!!!

(Man I have a hot husband!!!)

I also went to one of my middle school teachers surprise birthday parties, she was a huge influence on me for good and helped me out a lot. Here is a picture of us:

Me and Gail Brysch! : )

Now for my I am Grateful List:

• Brandon- He is such a wonderful husband and best friend and I am very blessed to have him as my husband forever!
• !FAMILY!- Brandon and I could not have gone through everything we have without them and it is such a blessing. Heavenly Father gave us both wonderful loving and supportive families. I am espicially thankful for my mom and her friendship and companionship when our husbands are gone.
• My Job-keeps me sane and helps me meet people and brings in a bit of money....every little bit helps.
• Jared and Kashari- They are wonderful friends and I could not have asked for more. To have a couple like them in our lives is a huge blessing, they have helped us more than they know.
• Friends (In General)- I don't have very many friends here in Texas, besides the people I interact with at work I dont have anyone and i have had several friends from Virginia, Idaho, other parts of Texas and Utah checking in on us randomly adn telling me how they are praying for us or aksing how we are and it means a lot.
• The Kougias family- They are the family brandon lives with when he is in Dallas and they have been so wonderful to us.
• The Halstead Family- We lived with them in Richmond and miss them more than they know.
• A Running "Healthy" Car- We have made 5 moves, maybe more, with this car and have not had to do anything but usual maintenance.
  
• SKYPE!!
• My health- I don't have any serious medical issues that prevent me to live life comfortably. I get sick and have a few things here and there...but overall I am healthy, and I am grateful.
• My Education- College wasnt always something I wanted to finish but I am SO grateful I did.
• All the people helping Brandon out in Dallas--there are so many and we are very blessed.
• This country that we live in-even with everything going on we still have a land of opportunity and freedoms.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints- This blessing and knowledge is one that encompasses ALL of my other blessings. EVERY SINGLE ONE! I am grateful for my Savior and His atoning sacrifice and for the knowledge I have of The Book of Mormon and the Bible and that knowledge effects every aspect of my life.
• Music- It is such a huge blessing to me and lifts my spirits regularly.

I have many many more blessings but I will go ahead and stop now.....this has been a long post sorry about that.... (if anyone actually looked at this lol)

WOW!

It seems like the closer we get to 2010 the FASTER the months are going by!! I cannot believe it is November 16th, it feels like my brother, sister in-law and niece just left and that was last month!!

So a quick not so in-depth update.

Brandon and I went to Dallas in October and spent about 4 days there, we both really feel that is where we need to be and so he has been there the last 2 weeks networking, having interviews etc... I go up on Wednesday to see him and have an interview of my own on Thursday. Then we will drive back to San Antonio together on Friday and he will drive back to Dallas on Saturday night!

My brother and sister in-law came to San Antonio the last week in October and so we had the whole family here for a bit and it was really nice!! We went to a pumpkin patch and played with Penelope a ton, and had a lot of good food.

I have been so grateful for family and good friends these last 6+ months, being unemployed is really tough and it is nice to still feel so much love and support. My mom has been great especially while Brandon has been gone by helping me to get to work and hanging out with me.

That is my really quick update!! Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Forklift driving....and a big oops

Tonight I went with my brother to his shop. He taught me how to drive a forklift and we took some things apart. He had me do some little driving/lifting exercises and then I got to ride the forklift. He almost put me and a crate onto a roof (it was pretty high up).

Then I drove the forklift while he directed me which way to go and lift etc... (sometimes proved to be difficult because I still have issues with my left and right)

Then I was driving something out of the shop and.....

Yeah, not so cool.....I didn't mean to take this apart!!

Yeah, so I pulled it out of it's track and bent it pretty good. I have to thank my brother for not getting upset. He just said "It's alright, bring the fork down and back up."

All in all it was a really fun evening--and because of the garage incident Steven said this event was MORE blog worthy than before. lol

Mormon Messages--Just what I needed tonight.

I needed an up-lift tonight and decided to get onto YouTube and watch some of the "Mormon Messages" that are posted there. Here are a few that have really helped me this evening.

NOTE: If you want to hear these videos you may want to scroll to the bottom of my blog and mute my playlist, or you can click the YouTube link and open it that way.

My next project!!

My mom and I each bought a kit for the following quilt, this is going to be my first real quilt!!!! I am SO excited!!! It is being shipped priority mail. To be honest quilting stresses me out because I try to make it perfect, but it is also relaxing and a stress relief which is a contradiction, but whatever.

Look how pretty!!!!

http://pinetreecountryquilts.com/displaykits.php?id=580

Recent happenings

I went to the Botanical gardens with my friend Melissa and we had a photography morning. I think we are going to start up a photo group and do something like this at least every month. Below are some of my favorites (un-edited). It was fun and despite the drought things were still green and blooming. I used manual settings on all of my pictures, and for the most part they turned out pretty good.

These were just some really pretty white flowers that I thought grew in a neat pattern.

They had a really cool butterfly garden. It was cool to get all three of these butterflies in the shot. They click of my camera made them fly away a lot.

They have a "big bug" thing going on and we saw several of these types of bugs all over the gardens.

I love the reflection of the clouds in the water here and the lilly pads, I have always liked lilly pads.

Mom and I went to San Antonio's Parade of homes-- that was SO cool and the homes were beautiful!!! The tickets were $10 and you got into a charter bus and they drove you up to the homes and then we walked through 7 totally different homes and got to vote on our favorite. It will be interesting to see which one ends up being 2009's winner. The homes are in the hill country but still in the city they had beautiful views!! I love that kind of stuff so it was a blast for me.

This week has been pretty good. I started at The Loft at La Cantera Mall.

(This is not the exact store I work at, but it looks very much like this only the Fall line up of clothes are displayed in the window....this looks like the spring line up.)

My brother and Sister in-law bought their plane tickets to come in October and I am really excited about that!!

Count your blessings...

I was thinking about my blessings and decided to do a little photo project of some of my blessings. With everything going on right now and the stresses it is very important to think about everything that is going right so that the weight of what is going wrong doesn't pull you down more. I am SO very, VERY grateful for all of the blessings I have and this picture does not come close to all of them.